Technology is always increasing our traffic safety. Over the decades, we’ve seen the adoption and (eventual) widespread use of things like seatbelts and airbags, which together, have drastically reduced motor vehicle fatalities. We’ve also seen better traffic lights, better roadway and city designs, and better vehicle designs, all of which protect us in new and innovative ways.
Now, we’re at the forefront of a new wave of vehicle safety technology. We’re seeing much more advanced control systems in vehicles, including self-driving components, and our knowledge of traffic safety is constantly increasing thanks to big data analytics.
Could we ever get to a point where we can reduce motor vehicle accident deaths to zero?
The Top Causes of Accidents
Let’s start by looking at some of the top causes of accidents and how technology may or may not be able to prevent these in the future:
- One of the most common causes of accidents is distraction. Drivers join a conversation or glance at their phone, then get involved in a collision. Autonomous vehicles could hypothetically eliminate this problem.
- Autonomous vehicles could also hypothetically solve the drunk driving problem, ensuring that only sober operators can operate vehicles.
- Excessive speed is a complicating factor in many fatal accidents. Strict speed controls with an onboard computer could potentially remedy this.
- Reckless drivers willing to bend or break the law cause thousands of fatal accidents every year. Strict controls or autonomous vehicles could conceivably prevent most of these actions.
- Bad weather. Bad weather is a bit trickier. Smart braking and better obstacle detection systems could mitigate risk here, but bad weather will always be a problem.
Of course, even collectively, these causes only represent a fraction of motor vehicle accident fatalities.
Technology and Increased Accident Prevalence
We also have to consider that even the greatest safety technologies may not have a positive effect in reducing motor vehicle fatalities; in fact, some technologies may actually increase the number and/or severity of accidents.
How?
- One path is through overconfidence. If a driver feels they’re invulnerable thanks to a new technology, they may be more likely to engage in reckless behavior. For example, gyroscopic balancing technology on motorcycles may make inexperienced motorcyclists overconfident in weaving in and out of traffic. And of course, semi-autonomous vehicles may make drivers so confident and carefree that they’re literally willing to nap on the highway.
- Some technologies serve as a distraction, more than anything else. Your vehicle may come with a “smart” digital assistant to help you navigate and operate your vehicle safely. But what if it takes your attention away from the road?
- New types of accidents. We may also see the rise of new types of accidents from new technologies. For example, if a hacker can conceivably take control of an autonomous vehicle remotely, they could cause some serious havoc.
Problems That Remain
No matter how far our technology develops or what kind of science fiction-worthy inventions are created in the future, there will be some problems that keep motor vehicle fatalities around:
- Technology-specific issues. Technology isn’t perfect. If you’ve ever owned a computer that crashed or a smartphone that glitched out unexpectedly, you know that. No matter what kinds of advanced technology arise, there will always be some technology-specific issues that cause or worsen some accidents; even airbags can cause occasional deaths, despite saving a far greater number of lives.
- Weather and bad conditions. Until a technology evolves to control the weather, bad weather conditions will continue to be a problem for motor vehicles. Even the best controls and braking systems in the world will struggle to prevent accidents in the midst of a violent snowstorm.
- Freak accidents. Some accidents are truly unpreventable. If a bolt of lightning strikes a tree, which then falls on top of a vehicle, it doesn’t matter how much technology is onboard that vehicle; the damage is going to unfold.
- Pedestrians are at much higher risk of dying in a traffic accident, since they have no form of protection against colliding vehicles. And pedestrians don’t always behave in rational or predictable ways; no matter how advanced our roads and vehicles get, there will always be some pedestrians in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Does that mean that new technology should be avoided, or that it’s going to be responsible for increasing the number of motor vehicle deaths? Certainly not. It seems like with each passing year, we get access to new technologies that keep us safer and reduce fatalities. But as long as motor vehicles are on the road and people are in them or near them, vehicle fatalities will continue to exist. It’s practically impossible to reduce that number to zero.